Geeky ex-librarian with a fondness for pop culture and Godzilla.

Tag Archives: food

Isabella Karle’s Curious Crystal Method What neighbors in a quiet D.C. suburb might not know is that the silver-haired gardening grandmother next door is perhaps one of the greatest—if largely unknown—scientists of her generation. (Narratively)

The Dim Sum Revolution How a brigade of kitchen workers got back what had been stolen from them, and then some. (San Francisco Magazine/Modern Luxury)

Furiouser and Furiouser Furious 7, the latest installment of America’s beloved gearhead saga, offers the same excess of thrills and explosive charm as its predecessors. (The Atlantic)

By the time this post goes up we all will have hopefully watched Furious 7 and while the review doesn’t really have spoilers, it might ruin the sheen of the previous movies if you’ve never watched them. I, of course, love them. And at some point (maybe even before this post goes live) I will write about why I love them.

Today’s links include several very long reads and I’m sorry about that first link. I know it’s depressing, but if there are some gems as well (especially the two sets of photography links).

10 Ways The World Will Get Worse In 2015 The World Economic Forum isn’t optimistic about the planet’s prospects for a happy new year. (Fast Company/Co.Exist) Note: Let’s get this one out of the way first.

‘Serial’ and White Reporter Privilege On cringing through the mystery. (The Awl) Note: Though I’m part of podcast myself and people have rec’d this one to me, I never found the time to start and now I’m glad I didn’t.

The Dreadful Inconvenience of Salad A start-up will contribute an interesting answer to the million-dollar food-policy question: If healthy food was as easy as junk food, would we eat more of it? (The Atlantic)

The Ebola Wars How genomics research can help contain the outbreak. (The New Yorker) Note: Equal parts heartbreaking and heartening. Also, this article clearly shows how treatment changes depend on the color of your skin and where you live/where you’re from.

By Noon They’d Both Be In Heaven KELLI STAPLETON, whose teenage daughter was autistic and prone to violent rages, had come to fear for her life. So she made a decision that perhaps only she could justify (New York Magazine)

The Unfinished Suburbs of America Thousands of acres across the country were partially developed during the housing boom. What should happen to them now? (The Atlantic)

Dear Kate: Living with Grief Following our daughter’s death, my husband and I saw no end to the grief. Yet we have somehow discovered meaning, hope, and even joy after life’s most terrible loss. (Indianapolis Monthly)

Bonus:

The Most Extraordinary Photos You’ve Never Seen Until now. Some months back, the agency’s photographers decided to look through all of their old, unpublished images to see what they might find. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the quality of work Magnum’s roster continuously produces, they came up with an incredible collection. What follows is a selection of the imagery on sale (signed prints for just $100 each!) and a note from the photographer about his or her frame. (Esquire)

‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’ This year marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I in 1914. On this year’s Armistice Day in London, a massive work of art dedicated to commonwealth servicemen and women lost a century ago reached its conclusion. The evolving installation, titled “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red”, began back on July 17, with the placing of a single ceramic poppy in the moat of the Tower of London. (The Atlantic)

The Chinese artist Liu Bolin’s latest project in Beijing is documented by Jason Lee from Reuters. Liu is known as the invisible man for using painted-on camouflage to blend into the background of his photographs(via The Guardian)

The Twitter of Tomorrow (New Yorker): Most people noticed that Twitter started connecting the different tweets that make up a given conversation with a blue line. I noticed this and it totally confused me — I don’t like it because I don’t like Twitter messing with chronological order and the lines are actually super annoying — I’d rather they did conversations differently. I don’t care about reading other people’s conversations on my timelines most of the time. Ugh. I know, I hate change, but come on.

Two stories from NPR:

Compensation Funds For Victims Of Tragedy A ‘Small Solace’ This was a really good story I heard Sunday morning. It’s an interview with a man who hands out compensation to victims — and he talks about some of his experiences and what kind of job it is (as well as how difficult it is for victims/survivors/their families as well as himself).

The Voice Of Rocky And Natasha Earns An Emmy: A much happier story. I’ve always been a big fan of Rocky & Bullwinkle and it was really fun to hear this short interview with June Foray. I watched the show on Netflix, but it’s no longer streaming on there, but it is on Hulu now, so I can get my fix. And in case you were wondering, my favorite part of the show is Peabody’s Improbable History.

I emailed this to a bunch of people, but I’ll share it again here. A touching and pretty awesome story about a boy from Mongolia who used the internet and ended up attending MIT: The Boy Genius of Ulan Bator (NYT)

A new study of the snow leopard’s habitat across the Tibetan plateau has found that Tibetan Buddhist monasteries may be better equipped than formal preservation programmes to protect the endangered cats from poaching, retaliatory killing by farmers and other deadly perils. The key is their ability to extend their influence across administrative boundaries and maintain safe space for the animals. (Tibetan monks and endangered cats via The Economist)

A review of The Grandmaster (which stars my favorite actor, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, and that I own and have watched, twice): The Grandmaster: Returning to the Roots of Kung Fu (Tea Leaf Nation) I haven’t seen enough kung fu movies to review it adequately, but it doesn’t quite seem as good as the other Wong Kar Wai movies I’ve watched, though it is good. H and I saw it in Chicago (and got to see Tony do a Q&A in the theater(!) after the film) and I did notice what was missing (about 10 minutes were cut from the original, which is the version that I own). If you’re looking for a lot of kung fu action, this isn’t the movie you want. That being said, it’s a decent existential look at kung fu, which is what WKW is good at. I think it’s a good movie, I just think there’s a better movie in there, somewhere.

I know, this got kind of long, but whatever, I found a lot of good links. As a final note, here’s a commercial from Thailand that will make you cry (and then you can read more about it here, via The Diplomat):